Sometimes serious. Sometimes humorous. Always unpredictable. By Dan Pimentel - Welcome to the Airplanista Aviation Blog, where I take a lighthearted look at general and business aviation, the airlines, and the incredible and generous community of aviators called #Avgeeks...they are my aviation family. I am currently available for magazine and corporate writing assignments - Email me here.

9:29 AM

GlobalFlyer launch attempt grounded for today

Steve Fossett’s around-the-world attempt in GlobalFlyer has been grounded today due to a “popup” mechanical glitch. Jon Karkow of Scaled Composites explained the problem:

"Unfortunately for today a small mechanical issue called a halt to the flight. We have discovered a small fuel leak which happens to be an element of the fuel system which we changed last flight. This new element has never been tested with a full fuel load before. We learned once it was fully fuelled that we had a small leak in that system. The leak is a fairly simple thing to fix but it will take around 24 hours because it requires fuel sealant material.